St Mary Redcliffe

St Mary Redcliffe tickets: which one to buy

St Mary Redcliffe is a large Anglican parish church in the Redcliffe district of Bristol, England, a short walk from Bristol Temple Meads station and the harbourside, and entry is free, with donations welcome. It is often described as one of the finest parish churches in England, and its size and splendour lead many visitors to mistake it for a cathedral. The church was built by the wealthy merchants of medieval Bristol, and its tall spire is a landmark of the city.

Visitors usually combine it with a walk along the harbourside to the SS Great Britain, Brunel's steamship, the M Shed museum, Bristol Cathedral, the old city around Corn Street and St Nicholas Market, and the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Volunteer guides are often present to answer questions, and tower tours are offered on certain days, taking visitors up to the roof and the bells, with a ticket. The church is active, with services, concerts and a choir, and visiting pauses during worship. A café in the church grounds serves light meals. The church is on a busy road, but its churchyard and the quiet interior feel far removed from the traffic outside.

Visiting St Mary Redcliffe: what to see

A church stood on this red sandstone cliff above the River Avon by the twelfth century, and the present building was mostly built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in the Perpendicular Gothic style, funded by merchants such as William Canynges, a shipowner and mayor of Bristol, whose tomb is in the church. Queen Elizabeth I is said to have described it as the fairest, goodliest and most famous parish church in England. The spire was damaged by lightning in the fifteenth century and stood as a stump for about four hundred years, until it was rebuilt in 1872, reaching a height of about eighty-nine metres.

The hexagonal north porch, with its elaborate carved doorway, is one of the most unusual medieval porches in England and once led to a shrine. Inside, the nave and choir are covered with a stone vault decorated with more than a thousand gilded roof bosses. The church holds a whalebone said to have been brought back by John Cabot after his voyage to North America in 1497, the armour and tomb of Admiral Sir William Penn, father of the founder of Pennsylvania, and a memorial to the poet Thomas Chatterton, who wrote his fake medieval poems in a room above the north porch. The stained glass includes windows from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

St Mary Redcliffe opening hours and the best time to go

The church is open daily, with shorter hours on Sundays because of services. Bristol is lively all year, and summer brings the Harbour Festival in July and the International Balloon Fiesta in August, when the city is busy. Choral evensong is sung on certain days, and concerts are held regularly. Christmas brings carol services that fill the church. Spring and autumn are pleasant for walking along the harbour. Allow about forty-five minutes for the church, and more for a tower tour.